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Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Nicola Woolcock, Education Correspondent at The Times reports, "Student beliefs must be challenged, says minister."

Jo Johnson has set out the dangers of shielding students from views that differ from their own through “safe spaces” and “no-platforming”Photo: Chris Radburn/PA

Universities must “open minds, not close them” and face tough new
penalties if they do not promote freedom of speech, Jo Johnson will warn
today.

Students should expect to encounter controversial
opinions and “frank and rigorous discussions”, the universities minister
will argue.

His defence of open debate comes amid a row at
Oxford University, where dozens of academics have criticised a professor
for arguing that Britain’s imperial history was not entirely shameful.
Nigel Biggar, regius professor of moral and pastoral theology at the
university, has been criticised by colleagues and students after writing
an article in The Times calling for a more nuanced appraisal.

In a speech to be delivered in Birmingham at the Limmud Festival, a celebration of Jewish learning and culture, Mr Johnson sets out the dangers of shielding students from views that differ from their own through “safe spaces” and “no-platforming”.

Next
year the newly created Office for Students (OfS) will be given the
power to fine, suspend or deregister universities that fail to uphold
free speech.

“Universities should be places that open minds, not close them, where
ideas can be freely challenged,” Mr Johnson says. “In universities in
America and worryingly in the UK, we have seen examples of groups
seeking to stifle those who do not agree with them.

“We must not
allow this to happen. Young people should have the resilience and
confidence to challenge controversial opinions and take part in open,
frank and rigorous discussions...

Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, said: “Universities
are absolutely committed to promoting and securing free speech and will
not allow legitimate speech to be stifled.Read more...

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Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.